the romance of enforced austerity

[dhex]

having rediscovered for the umpteenth time that my blood cannot be solely comprised of gin and tonics, i found myself awake at 6 am and watching joe scarborough's year end wrap up with the usual cast of characters*.

i'd forgotten just how bizarrely attached to punishment many conservatives are about boom and austerity. it's a lot like listening to adbusters, in that the "real" and the "true" can never involve shopping. and now it doesn't have to, because the cycle of greed is over and blah blah blah blah blah cunts cunts cunts, etc.

plus they had tom brokaw so there was a lot of stuff about how the greatest generation was made of nothing but good decisions and bootstraps but baby boomers were trained from birth to be awful because they didn't have to watch their friends die in a lonely field in europe.

so basically this decade was terrible, everything is awful, and we're all going to be better for it, maybe. even their version of the voice of reason, mika, was in on the flagellation-fest. i have no doubt this is far from an uncommon sentiment, conservative or liberal, because it hits on a collective punishment thing that just rubs everyone the right way.

well, i don't know about you guys, but my decades come in best of times worst of times formats because ten years is a thing like that, and all this cosmic punishment for greed stuff can suck a bowl of dead dicks.

on the other hand i can't even imagine how buttfuckingly awful fox news is at this very second, nor shall i.

* it is actually linguistically impossible to adequately describe how much of a fuckface donny deutsch is. having friends on the inside at the network...there are so many great stories. but if you needed proof that the universe is a cold and empty place and that religion is merely a blanket against the unending nihilist spasm of life red in tooth and claw, the fact that he's not homeless is a good start.

[FortNinety]

A couple of things, mostly re: my rundown of the decade...

Which was what it was; the best of times, as well as the worst of times. And maybe both things hinged on other elements, out of my control, but I try not to view it as such (though me complaining about the hurdles when it's come to getting work somewhat slaps in the face of that attitude, I realize). Again, one of the key highlights was being homeless, when all and said and done, was actually a real learning experience, and I honest to God wasn't even all that freaked out when it went down (believe it or not).

I'm fairly confident if I was alive in any other decade, I'd probably be going through the same bullshit, except the details would be slightly different. Nothing more, nothing less.

Now, I did mention 9/11, which might get some groans. But again, it was what it was. At the very least it was a wild day. And here's where I bring everything together:

One thing that I find most interesting... as well as somewhat depressing, but it's also one of those "whaddaya gonna do" type of things... is seeing friends become slowly conservative over the past decade. Which I suppose is natural, even if you were knew them initially in a primarily liberal environment (in my case art school). Not sure if 9/11 played as big a role as I initially thought, but I'm certain it sped up the process.

Recently, one of them was extremely upset over a 16 year old cousin of theirs (who lives in California) for stating Happy 9/11 Day on Sept 11 over at Facebook (great story already, I know). They felt it was extremely insensitive and unfunny and yada, yada, yada. I tried my best to rationalize that he's just a kid, plus the further you're away from NYC, the bigger the cartoon it all seemed, all that jazz, but they wouldn't hear any of it. Kinda silly. The main reasoning was "well, he wasn't there when we all thought everyone was dead!" or something like that. Guess is for future reference, not pass along that wacky Photoshop of Hulk Hogan beating up the Twin Towers.

Overall, I'm just depressed how humorless people become in general when they age. Can't help but be reminded of that Penn Gillette video in the random vid thread.

All I can say further is, and I'm certainly not pointing any fingers here (I forget if Mike even has cable), is how funny it is that those hate Fox News the most sure do watch a fuckton of it. To a retarded degree.

On a semi-related note, I had SNL on in the background, which I hardly watch, so I was oddly compelled by the nervous laughter of the audience when they poked fun at Obama.

[isfet]

you know, aside from politics and whatnot, it seems like a lot of people have been hating on this decade for a multitude of reasons.

an argument i used to engage in more often, but eventually just stopped was "there's no good music any more."  or, "why is there no good _____ music anymore?"

there is some kind of pervasive idea, i think, for a decent number of people, that there is no such thing as good music any more.  specifically, i think they're more upset that there is no more good "popular" music.  as in, the days of turning on the television and seeing something like Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins etc. etc.

whether you want to classify that music as "good" popular music, is really up to you, but the point stands that i would agree that that era is done.  what i don't agree with, though, is the idea that music is now dead because TV no longer shows what's cool.

concert wise, the 00s have been much richer for me than the 90s.  granted, i entered high school in 1998 (i think?).  but the point still stands, my music collection has increased dramatically over this past decade.  so to the haters, i must direct a middle finger squarely at you.

maybe since i've always listened to music that i had to search for, this decade hasn't really changed much for me.  but i suppose for the person who "got into" something when they saw a video on MTV, there's a piece of nostalgia they won't be able to relive any time soon.

[isfet]

one last thing to add to music of this decade.  after just reading (and thus remembering) that Soundgarden is getting back together, i think it's safe to say that this has also been a decade of reunions in music.

there are probably some really good reasons that i could go into as to why this occurred so much, but, my god, so many bands who said "never again" came back to say "well...ok, this time."

[FortNinety]

Again, it happens all the time; people were simply happier when they were kids, and being an adult is no fun naturally. Though if these people you are referring to Joe are your age and not mine, well, not sure what to say.

I will say, this was the decade in which I somewhat fell off the cultural grid, which is actually pretty significant for a variety of reasons (enough for me to go back and revise my blog post, so check it out in a few to know what the hell I'm talking about), though not being current with current music happens to most I believe. And yeah, I pretty much stopped paying attention to the radio and feel mainstream music hit a head end around the late 90s actually. But it's certainly not the end of the world, nor does that detail stick out in any particular fashion.

I guess I have enough friends, such as yourself Joe, to let me know what to listen to, which lessens the blow. Point being, everything has always sucked, that's nothing new. On a totally random note, I recently had an email exchange with some friends of mine re: the Phantom Menace, centered around a recent YouTube video where some guy spends literally an hour and half ripping it apart. Those other friends of mine could not understand my dismissing the thing, nor the stance of "letting it go"... which to be honest, would take too long to explain, hence why bringing it up is perhaps silly.

On that note, I think more than anything else, and I know this might be hard to believe, but I've calmed the fuck down over the past ten years, and no longer prone to get worked up over especially out of hands things, like retardation in the form of shitty Hollywood flicks and the like. The subways on the other hand, while still somewhat out of our hands, has a direct impact on our day to day lives.... Anyhow, I guess learning to accept things the way they are (note, having such a stance on something like Star Wars movies is beyond ridiculous, I realize), just comes with age, though I'm also getting laid on a far more frequent basis as compared to ten years ago, hence my newfound zen attitude.

Still blows my mind that people enjoy Family Guy though. That will never stop pissing me off. And sup Mike!

Also, Soundgarden is getting back together? Shit... Sorry, but as a former Washingtonian, one who grew up in the midst of grunge, I approve!

[Fitz]

Still blows my mind that people enjoy Family Guy though. That will never stop pissing me off. And sup Mike!

I suppose this may be one of those things like ball sports that I'm simply not constructed to understand but why on earth would someone liking something you don't care for piss you off?

Not caring I get.  Being a bit boggled by what other people see in it I totally get (see Ball Sports).  But pissed off takes a level of connection I just can't wrap my head around.

In general I think the 00's were kind of an undefined mindfuck for most people.  Established social narratives were twisted by real events to the extent that a large part of the world population has had to bend them to explain away those real events. A couple of years of Planes, Biological Weapons, homegrown murders, well executed invasions, complete cack up occupations and the establishment of watching ill prepared young people spiral out of control while taking bets on when they would die left a lot of folks deeply disjointed.

Nostalgia, even fake nostalgia, becomes a refuge from the present moment. Former waring band mates want to kiss and make up so their bank accounts can flourish. People need new narratives so they start trying to live at least part time in alternate narratives (Cosplay, Steampunk, 2012-ism...take your pick of the manifestations of that one). Rather than getting involved in making anything new an obsession with using past sources in double coding/juxtaposition pops up in everything from mash ups to orchestral renditions of old video game songs to the endless stream reworked audio tracks to old tv shows and movies. In some ways bits of this idle brain spinning got cleared out, or at least tossed in the "Shit that ain't important" dumpster, when the economic three card monte games all got busted and the brain-shit took a back seat to potential real threats to the body. 

As the anxiety of that goes away people will go dumpster diving for it all over again. If you want to make cash off of it start writing the 90s nostalgia books now.

[FortNinety]

I'm fairly certain I've explained my severe disdain over Family Guy more than enough times by now, plus I honestly hope that no one actually believes me when I state that I'm seriously pissed off by the thing. I can be an odd duck at times, but not THAT much so.

Though want to know what a great show is? Curb Your Enthusiasm! Got seasons 3-6 on sale via Amazon, which I just started digging into... good, good stuff!

[dhex]

i wonder if folks who came of age/awareness at the end of the dot com era and imprinted good tidings and mad loot are basically going to be semi-permanently rooted in a tailspin a la the lost generation but minus the world war one thing? everything slathered with a heaping of malaiseonnaise, but nobody really knows why.

somewhat contra fitz, i think the driverfor a lot of the laff a minute "remember this?" routine is simply ease of storage and retrieval. folks like me who either neglected to remember or accidentally bleached out most of the childhood entertainment they watched can just go hit youtube and in seconds be reminded why they didn't remember transformers or gi joe the first time around.* (if nothing else, they're a decent argument for not owning a tv if you have kids in the house. i can't imagine kids shows are less stupid now.)

yet one of the more personally important moments of the decade was understanding - really understanding - that this stuff means a tremendous amount to some people and how much that scares me. running the reverse of mr. henley's assertions here, i'm not sure a greater fixation on fantasy means much, or if it does, is anything approaching a good thing. but i also recognize the thumbprint of my own tastes and fears at play in that particular viewpoint, and realize that "geek pride" is like any other scaling of marginalized markets into larger arenas. hell, i remember reading similar essays from "fringe culture" folk in the mid and late 90s.

but as per my original thought, there is a very strong strain of an insistence on the need for collective punishment within our culture. politically, conservatives seem to approach it more as a spiritually purifying ordeal, rather than the redemptive vengeance of leftist folk. which is great if they were content with inflicting it upon themselves, mind you, but it's not how things work with these people. with scarborough and gang, there was this secular but pervasive myth of redemptive violence thing going on that's just flat out awful coming from the mouths of people with more money than sense. tom brokaw has more juice than whole neighborhoods in this city, and to be so mealy-mouthed about the purifying effects of sacrifice is to betray a staggering lack of self-awareness. or perhaps a need to book rene girard up in that shit, like, yesterday.

(how entertaining would the world be if i booked its talk shows? answer: very!)

ultimately, cultural mash-ups (and mashups, musical) are going to be a hyperactive presence in entertainment and the arts for a while, at least until some kind of luddite backlash really gains strength. or if it does, for that matter - as of this weekend i can point a remote at my tv and make all the music i've collected since 1995 show play.

(or play cartoons from adultswim, or cooking tips from alton brown, or movies, or lectures from the von mises institute/national geographic society/nasa/etc ad nauseum.)

* that i enjoy the hell out of robot chicken is, i think, a testament to their writing and creative animation chops. you can imagine my confusion at reading the wikipedia entry for MASK; without wikipedia i would be in the dark. family guy has often been even more confusing, since i also missed most 80s sitcoms. thank goodness for slapstick comedy.